Necromancer
Note: This page represents a class abstract which is not yet added to Time of Unparalleled Darkness. It may be modified prior to addition.
A specialist wizard who calls himself a necromancer or a cleric with the Death domain has significant power over undead and the forces of negative energy, but a the big-N Necromancer is their true master. A practitioner of vile and forbidden arts, the necromancer roots about in graveyards, searching out moldering components for her obscene spells. She calls upon restless, tormented spirits of the dead, seeking their arcane secrets. She might be a consummate villain, or perhaps a tortured hero whose obsession with death leads her along moral paths many in the Core would consider questionable, or at best, unwise.
Necromancers often have some tragic experience in their early lives that marks the beginning of their fascination with death, undeath, and the power of necromancy. She might have been the sole survivor of a terrible massacre, hiding somewhere while she watched her family, friends, and neighbors cut down, or perhaps forced to hide in a pile of corpses in order to escape the soldiers who razed her village. Other necromancers experience some supernatural connection to a long-dead civilization or a single notable figure of the ancient past. She might have been haunted since childhood by strange dreams in which she muttered phrases in some forgotten language, waking with the compulsion to investigate dusty ruins in search of arcane lore. Yet others are drawn to the idea of necromancer as a caretaker of the undead, such as the views espoused of the Grey by the Eternal Order.
A necromancer is similar to other arcane spellcasters such as wizards, sorcerers, bards, or warmages. She does not learn spells as quickly as wizards do, nor have access to such a great variety of spells, but she excels at her primary repertoire - necromantic, evil, and fear-related spells. She is a combat caster, with more resilience than a wizard or sorcerer and a definite emphasis on combat-oriented necromantic spells.
Necromancers have much in common with wizards, particularly specialist necromancers. They often join associations of wizards or sorcerers, where such groups exist, in order to acquire more spells. Paladins and clerics of good deities dislike dread necromancers, nor do druids hold any fondness for them. Other character classes are able to work alongside dread necromancers, particularly if their own goals or methods are equally unsavory
Not all necromancers are evil, although the best of them could easily be described as evil-tolerant. Whatever their good intentions - if they have any - necromancers commit acts that most societies in the core consider evil, and where they are not morally repugnant, at least repellant. Some places, such as Dementlieu, make necromancy and its practice illegal, and as such, even a necromancer believing they do good will find themselves
The gods of good and light generally look disfavourably on necromancy. Ezra - or her Church at least - would regard the act of Necromancy as creating more proponents of the Legion - though the Fourth Sects view that the ends justify the means has led to at least one Necromancer in that particular sect's ranks. The Morninglord has an entire religious order dedicated to hunting down necromancers and vampires. Even the cults of Osiris of Har'Akir would not openly allow a known necromancer as a worshipper, let alone a member with any authority. The only faith which could be argued to be good (or at least having a moral footing in their homeland) which accepts such followers is the Eternal Order - and even they would ask such members to greatly temper their arts, lest we bring about the Hour of Ascension early.
A dread necromancer's participation in combat is a balancing act. She wants to be able to deliver touch attacks, but light armor and her relatively weak (d6) Hit Dice offer only modest protection against enemy attacks. The spectral hand spell is an effective solution that allows her to remain apart from the thick of melee while using her charnel touch (and other spells). Her familiar can also deliver these attacks for her, although it is little less fragile than the dread necromancer herself.
Gaining the ability to cast animate dead is a bit like taking the Leadership feat and acquiring a squadron of followers. Skeletons and zombies can shield a dread necromancer from enemy attacks, open doors and spring traps while she remains at a safe distance, and wait on her hand and foot. Dread necromancers always look for opportunities to animate fallen foes of Large or larger size, since they make even more effective combatants.
As a dread necromancer reaches the higher levels of her class, her charnel touch becomes ever more fearsome and she eventually transforms into an undead creature herself. By this point she has probably acquired magic items that bring her Armor Class to a respectable level and thus might be more willing to wade into the thick of melee with her charnel touch. Of course, by the time she can cast horrid wilting there might be little need for her to enter melee at all.
